Sunday 6th September saw the first running of this new trail half marathon, set up by the C0-op supporters club of Stockport County to raise funds for both the foottball club and there charity partner, ‘The Wellspring’ which  is a Stockport based resource centre providing free support and services for homeless and disadvantaged people.

Being my home town and in aid of my football team it made perfect sense to drive down and run the race.

Registration took place inside the main stand and as the weather was fantastic you had the choice of eleven thousand seats inside the ground to get changed on.

After a quick warm up alongside the pitch and a few runs up and down the main stand steps (1970’s football training style) it was time to hit the start line.

There were in total 335 runners who took part, the route started outside the main stand and headed towards the river mersey, Stockport County’s ground is quite high up and those of us in the know knew it would be a slog back up to the finish, the route followed the River Mersey through to an area called Didsbury , the ground was a mixture of tow paths, grass fields and areas of woodland, after a loop of the river and a quick run accross a bridge we headed back hitting the two hills back to the ground at mile 11.5 , for a finishing time of 1hr 40.10 just 20 seconds of a PB so well pleased  with that, a not to shabby goodie bag including a medal and free ticket to a home game (we just can’t give them away).

Hopefully the race will continue next year.

Darrell